The dodger on my boat (which is for sale, by the way) is pretty nice for cruising and it looks good - biggest problem is that it really hinders sailing as it pretty well covers the deck top over the cabintop winches, cleats, etc.

You basically cannot use outer cabin winches when it is on, and the primaries are impeaded. I tend to use it in the winter when I have my cruising sails on, since its not too hard to use the furling jib and lazy jack main even with the dodger in place.

In the spring before the first race, the dodger and the frame come off and go to storage.

I think that a dodger could be designed to work well when sailing, but that dodger would be quite big and probably therefore ugly. Mine is very low profile and I think it has good lines.

If you look here (scroll down to pictures, last pic on 2nd row) you can see the frame attach points and the clips that hold it in place: http://kite.drunkensailor.org/?p=93

I've also attached a picture that shows the dodger itself.

Is it worth it? If you are somewhere cold and want to extend your cruising season, I'd say yes. If you are somewhere warm and think it would be good for sun and rain, I'd say no (unless you just motor all the time).

It sure has made for some very comfortable winter motors down the ICW to the boat yard, standing in the companionway with the tiller pilot remote in hand - but that's only a couple times a year for me.

-dan

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